Some of you…perhaps most of you…are not only foodies, but healthy food foodies, and you try to supply your family with nutritious, safe food. A few of you have more than a passing interest in keeping your pantry healthy and go out of your way to feed your family right. I have considered myself to be in that group for the last decade or so, both because I want to put generally healthy meals on the family table and because I am diabetic and want to eat right to keep it under semi-control. I say semi-control because I made a

First, I wanted my culinary herbs close at hand to the kitchen. I have a raised bed veggie garden about 100 feet from the house, but I started gardening on my porch rails so I could grab some basil or chives without hiking to the garden.

Second, my regular garden spot is partially shaded. Many veggies can deal with 4-6 hours of sunlight daily, but tomatoes aren’t one of them. Tomatoes need FULL sun, 6-8 hours a day, and my garden spot just doesn’t provide that.

Smart gardeners work with, not against, what they have. Sure, we amend soil with nutrients…NATURAL nutrients, not chemical garbage produced in a lab. A common term for what we do with soil is “building” good soil, and that is what we do…build, not deplete and destroy.